


New Horizons

by ishouldwritethatdown



Category: Dishonored (Video Games)
Genre: Baby Emily, Corvo sulking on a roof, Family Fluff, Gen, Jessamine being a badass
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-10
Updated: 2018-02-10
Packaged: 2019-03-16 11:17:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13635192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ishouldwritethatdown/pseuds/ishouldwritethatdown
Summary: When Corvo is stressed out and missing Karnaca, he heads to the roof. No matter where you are in the Isles, the wind blows and sea rages the same. He wonders whether she'll have his eyes, or his hair, or maybe his affinity with climbing tall structures. He wonders what her grandfather would say, if he were still alive. Mostly he wonders if he really is still just the street trash that scraped together enough coin to enter a swordfighting contest thirteen years ago.





	New Horizons

Corvo tilted his chin up, letting the wind brush his exposed face and play with his hair. The air was sharp this morning, biting into his nose and his ears, but it was comforting.

The wind had travelled from over the sea, the same sea that lapped the shores of his old home in Serkonos. No matter where in the Isles you went, the sea was choppy and brutal, enticing sailors with steely grey eyes. It was reassuring like that.

Corvo was letting the cold ocean air and whispering wind cool his cheeks and calm his nerves. He could jump from buildings, take swords to the arms, but nothing stung like the words the Royal Guard had hurled at him.

“Get out of here, street rat,” he’d spat. “The Empress doesn’t want to be disturbed by the likes of you.”

It wasn’t a secret that he was hated by most of the Guard. Jealousy, he supposed, that a mere labourer’s son managed to land the job of Royal Protector. That’s what Jessamine said, whenever she noticed their snide comments and side glances getting to him.

But still, it hurt. To know that they still saw him as the street trash he’d been, the skinny sixteen year old who’d been quick enough with a sword to win a place on the Guard, and then lucky enough to get shipped out to Dunwall for service to Emperor Euhorn.

The Emperor had often been enthusiastic about his wine, and when he got red-faced enough he used to rope Corvo into a one-sided discussion about how proud he was that his daughter was too good for every man in the entire Empire.

“There’s not one scoundrel, not a sin’le one, thas good enough for my Jessamine. They’re all beneath her. Hear that?”

“Yes, your majesty,” Corvo would agree. As the years went on, his response to these assertions got less distinct. The consequences for the Emperor discovering his and Jessamine’s relationship permeated his mind, and although the Emperor was far too drunk to notice, it gnawed at him.

Despite all this boasting, on the last occasion that Corvo was present for one of these impassioned sermons, Euhorn started hiccupping, and lost his momentum. Jessamine had long retired to her chambers, and he’d tried several times to escape, but Euhorn kept pointing various cutlery and food items at him and starting to talk again.

He took the wine bottle in his hand, and was about to refill his glass, but seemed to reconsider and just brought the bottle to his lips. “I’ll never see my grandchildren,” he muddled. That was the last coherent thing he’d said all night.

On the roof of Dunwall Tower two years later, Corvo was thinking that he had been right.

A raven was perched near to him, eyeing him closely with its head tilted.

“What?” he asked.

The bird didn’t answer.

From the window that he had climbed out of, Corvo heard busy footsteps, and then the voice of one of the maids:

“Sarah, have you seen the Lord Protector anywhere?” she asked, worriedly.

“No, why?” Sarah asked, seeming to absorb some of the first maid’s panic as she did.

“The Empress is asking for him, and nobody can find him anywhere. She’s utterly distraught, won’t talk to anybody except to demand where he is.”

Corvo’s heart quickened. If Jessamine was asking for him, maybe something had gone wrong. He pushed down the bitter taste in his mouth hearing the maids talk about his disappearance as if he hadn’t been turned away from Jessamine’s chambers two hours ago. He needed to get to her.

“What could she want Lord Corvo for?” Sarah commented, sounding something like disapproving. “She’s not in any danger. I doubt there’s anyone better guarded in the Isles, especially today.”

“Well, you’ve heard the rumours,” the first maid replied, lowering her voice slightly, although he doubted there was anyone around to hear that wasn’t already in the know.

“Well, yes, but I—goodness! You mean there really is something to those silly stories?” she asked.

“How else do you think the Empress got herself knocked up?”

“Really, Leticia!” Sarah exclaimed, scandalised, and Leticia hushed her.

Corvo got onto his feet and crouched still on the roof, ready to move once he wouldn’t be heard by the maids exchanging good luck down below. The raven watched him with intrigue, still unmoving.

Once in the clear, he darted across the roof as he had so many times before, stepping deftly on sturdy tiles. He had the whole Tower memorised from above, and recognised the black scuff mark on the stonework that acted as his compass.

He reached Jessamine’s chambers and stalled. He was doubting himself, suddenly, unsure if Jessamine would really want to see him. Maybe it was suspicious for him to be so involved, here. He was only the Royal Protector, after all.

He steeled himself and hopped onto the ledge of the window. An old, familiar action. He’d been sneaking around the Guard into these chambers for four years.

He could see Jessamine through the glass; she was sitting up in bed, and had eyes only for the bundle of cloth she was cradling. She looked tired and peaceful, not like the maid had described at all. That made sense. Gossip travelled fast in the Tower, and things always got exaggerated.

He eased open the window, almost afraid to breech the moment. At the motion, Jessamine’s eyes came away from the baby, and her smile grew wide. Her shoulders relaxed some, although Corvo hadn’t noticed they were tense.

“Corvo,” she said affectionately, and all his doubts melted away in that moment. She was safe, and she wanted him here.

“Are you alright?” he asked softly, a smile on his face. As he approached the bed, the round little face of her baby came into view.

“All the better now that you are here,” Jessamine replied, and turned her face up towards him. He leaned down and kissed her gently on the lips. Their foreheads touched for a brief moment, and then their eyes both went to the baby.

“This is your father, Emily,” she whispered. Emily gazed at Corvo with new, blue-grey eyes, not unlike the sea’s unwavering stare from the rooftop.

“It is an honour, my Lady,” Corvo promised. He took one of her tiny, delicate hands with his finger and pressed his lips to it. Emily gazed at him in curious wonder.

“You should hold her,” Jessamine said her words all soft like a secret footstep.

He started to protest, but didn’t manage to do much more than open his mouth before his daughter was being passed into his arms, a bundle of blankets that she was already desperately trying to kick her way out of. He held her close to his chest, and he was filled up with a beautiful warmth.

Emily made a noise, something that sounded like it might have been a question if she could form coherent words. She followed it with another, and then her face scrunched and she began to whine.

“You’re safe,” Corvo hushed, bouncing her gently. “It’s okay. I’m never going to let anything bad happen to you.”

Emily quieted, and looked pensive for a moment, like she was considering his words. Then she reached up as far as her little arm would reach and swatted at his long hair hanging down from his face.

He laughed, and although his eyes didn’t move from Emily, he heard Jessamine join in a little. He planted a kiss on Emily’s forehead, letting his hair tickle her cheeks, and she giggled.

The doors to Jessamine’s chambers started to open, and one of the nurses came in. “Now that that’s dealt with, we can—“ she stopped short at the sight of Corvo. She looked like she was about to brush it aside and carry on with what she was saying, but Jessamine cut in:

“I want to know why Lord Corvo was denied access to my chambers,” she demanded.

The nurse was flustered, “Well, I assure you, Empress, I had no say in—if it had been up to me, I would have—“ She didn’t seem to know where to go with her sentence next. “It was the understanding of the staff that you were not to be disturbed,” she said, finally.

“I want whoever ruled that to be the case to come before me and tell me why they think they have more authority than the Empress herself,” she ordered. Even lying in bed, exhausted, she had enough of a commanding demeanour to cut a throat with words alone.

“Yes, Empress, right away,” she ducked her head and left the room, whatever she had intended to do forgotten. The doors closed behind her, and Jessamine’s face shifted instantaneously into a warm smile.

“That should buy us some time. They’ll be squabbling about that for a good few hours.” She fluffed out the covers beside her and said, “Come, sit with me.”

Corvo made his way around the bed, kicked off his boots, and manoeuvred himself onto it, rocking Emily as little as possible. He shuffled up so that his thigh and Jessamine’s were touching. She rested her head on his shoulder, and he hummed happily, leaning into it.

“You terrify me, you know that?” he said.

She laughed quietly. “I just want you two all to myself,” she replied.

Emily was settling, eyes drifting closed. He could feel the air moving, their breaths all mixed up together, and the warmth spreading over his skin.

Out of the window, he could see a raven peering in at them through the ledge, watching them with protective intensity. When Corvo looked it in the eyes, it turned and took off towards the ocean, crying to the sky that there was a new Kaldwin in Dunwall.


End file.
